I may have to implement a Weismanesque "Thank You for Not ..." list.

But it would just have one entry.

Thank you for not...

1) Calling the baseball team in Japan the "Ham Fighters"

They are the Nippon Ham ... Fighters.

For photographic proof check after the jump:

Continue reading...

Mike Cameron of the Padres was suspended for the first 25 games of the 2008 season for failing a test for banned stimulants.

Cameron is planning to file for free agency.

The Chunichi Dragons won for the third time in the Japan Series, beating the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 4-2 at the Nagoya Dome.

Yoshihiro Suzuki picked up the win in relief for Chunichi. Mistuo Yoshikawa, a 19-year old, took the loss for the Fighters.

Nippon Ham manager Trey Hillman is just one loss away from getting the chance to start shopping for homes in Kansas City. Game 5 is Thursday night in Nagoya.

Joe Posnanski reports.

• High school kids will steal the DVDs out of Netflix envelopes if you leave them in your mailbox for the Postal Service to pick up. I hope they enjoy episodes 9-13 of "Wonderfalls."
• No sports news flash should be headlined "Fasano files for free agency."
• If you mail your landlord a check that you have not signed nor filled in an amount nor a payee, the landlord won't cash it.
• There's no way one million people could have fit a three-mile route to watch the Red Sox victory parade. If you figure that each person attending is going to take up at least two square feet (which is pretty cozy), people would have to be stacked up over 30 deep on each side of the route for the entire three miles. I hope no one had to go to the bathroom.

• November 12 - Rookie of the Year awards, both leagues.
• November 13 - AL Cy Young Award
• November 14 - Manager of the Year awards, both leagues
• November 15 - NL Cy Young Award
• November 19 - AL Most Valuable Player
• November 20 - NL Most Valuable Player

All the awards will be announced at 11 am PST at baseballwriters.org.

Baseball presses on in Japan and the Chunichi Dragons have a taken a 2-1 lead in the Japan Series over the Nippon Ham Fighters with a 9-1 win at home in the Nagoya Dome.

Chunichi scored seven runs in the first inning and coasted the rest of the way.

Joe Posnanski's report.

The Dewey Blog, which is not about Dwight Evans, discusses baseball as it fits in to the Dewey Decimal Classification system.

My work life and my home life clash! And it's not all that much fun.

The scary part is that much of it makes sense to me.

In a rather terse AP report, Scott Boras has said that Alex Rodriguez will opt of his deal with the Yankees and become a free agent.

Link suggested by ... a lot of people.

We return you to regularly scheduled programming.

The Chunichi Dragons evened the Japan Series at one win apiece with an 8-1 victory over the Nippon Ham Fighters at the Sapporo Dome.

The Fighters had just four hits and have only six in the first two games. Fernando Seguignol homered for Nippon Ham's only run. Byung Kyu Lee and Masahiko Morino hit two-run homers for the Dragons.

The series resumes Tuesday in Nagoya. Games 3, 4, and 5 will be played in the Central League champions park.

Joe Posnanski's view on the series so far.

This story from the AP about the World Series showed up with this headline:

Nippon Ham southpaw Yu Darvish struck out 13 Chunichi Dragons hitters as his team took a 1-0 lead in Japan Series with a 3-1 win at the Sapporo Dome.

All of Nippon Ham's runs came on a 3-run homer by designated hitter Fernando Seguignol in the first inning off of loser Kenshin Kawakami.

Game 2 will be Sunday night in Sapporo.

Obligatory boxscore.

An English language boxscore reveals the Fighters meager, yet sufficient offensive attack.

Joe Posnanski blogs from Sapporo after finding out about Buck O'Neil being honored with a statue and award at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

But, the timing DID make you wonder what the Hall of Fame could do. On the day of his funeral, the Hall released a statement saying they would find a way to honor Buck. Those of us who were close to Buck — and I’m talking about hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions — hoped they would do the right thing. It would not have been right to just induct him into the Hall, I don’t think. For one thing, it would have smacked of being some sort of celestial makeup call, which is the last thing in the world anyone wanted. Buck never wanted to be a token, and he never wanted anyone to feel sorry for him. Also, it would not have meant anything — the whole reason so many of us wanted Buck O’Neil to go into the Hall of Fame was so that Buck himself could know that feeling and hear the cheers. With him gone, a Buck O’Neil induction ceremony would have been like a wake.

The Hall of Fame folks, to their credit, realized this. It took a year, but they came up with a beautiful compromise. They will put up a statue in his honor. And it doesn’t matter if its not in the official “Hall.” In fact, it’s better that it’s not. Buck was set apart. People will see it, kids will see it, and his name will live on. That’s the point.

Then they will have this Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award to give to those people who have dedicated their lives to the game and deserve to be remembered and honored. I have, in my mind, a long list of scouts and coaches and writers and baseball lifers who deserve that honor. I’ll write about them sometime. For now, it’s worth just saying that — once again — something good will happen for people because of the good name of Buck O’Neil. That, to me, is the best way to honor the man.

 

Here is the article from the Hall of Fame site written by Barry Bloom of MLB.com.

MLB president and chief operating officer Bob DuPuy has announced that Major League Baseball should finish the 2007 year with about $6 billion in revenue. This is almost the same total as the NFL took in during 2006, according to a report by Chris Isidore on CNNMoney.com.

DuPuy pointed to increases in revenue from MLB.com as well as the growth of the online ticket resale market as major contributors to baseball's financial health.

So with the free agent season coming up after the World Series ends, don't be surprised to see players receiving salaries that will make your head spin.

On two axes.

Over at Baseball Analysts, Mark Armour has written a great piece about how the perception of Red Sox fans have changed over time.

Armour looks at how the image of the tortured Red Sox fan was etched in people's minds by Dan Shaughnessy's book The Curse of the Bambino. Armour also has issues with Glenn Stout and Richard Johnson's Red Sox Century which pins most of the Red Sox failures in the 20th Century on the team's racism.

What was most unsatisfying is that neither book captures all of the fun I have had following the Red Sox. Shaughnessy presented me as living a life of agony, and Stout as wasting my time on a bunch of bigots and losers. In fact, I have enjoyed nearly every minute of it. There are plenty of things about the world that get me aggravated. Following baseball, rooting for the Red Sox, is basically a hell of a lot of fun. My memories of sitting in the stands with my grandfather, or listening to the radio at our cabin in Maine, are not marred by what might have happened in 1949. There was no wallowing.

-------------------------------------

But really, I just want to be treated like any other fan. I know faithful Indians followers, smart Pirates nuts, proud Phillies loyalists, and, yes, kind Yankees fans. My wish is that they all experience the occasional championship banner, but also that they enjoy the journey every year. But none of them, and certainly not I, can represent a Nation, or be made to pay for the sins of their team.

I've written about fans of other teams here before and it usually comes out offending someone, which is not my conscious intent.

We love to stereotype fans of other and ascribe them qualities that we think they should have because they are rooting for the wrong team. So, they have to be bad people. I know I certainly do it. And I can't say it's an admirable trait.

Perhaps next year, I'll try to be overly defensive Dodgers fan who gets upset when people tell me that all the fans here leave too early. Or that I'll stop picking on the people of St. Louis or San Francisco or San Diego. However, if you were a fan of the Wilmington Quicksteps, you're still fair game.

Much has been made of the Rockies eight day layoff before the World Series. This article considers it unprecedented:

Colorado's eight-day layoff before starting World Series play the longest in history. The previous longest drought was six days - by the 2006 Detroit Tigers, 1996 New York Yankees and the 1995 Atlanta Braves. Both the Yankees and Braves won.

That would be true if the 1910 season never existed. That year, AL Champion Philadelphia finished up its regular season on October 6 with a loss to the Yankees, 3-1. But the National League season kept going. And going. The pennant-winning Cubs played their last game on October 15 with a 4-1 win against St. Louis.

The World Series got underway on October 17, a layoff of 10 days for the Athletics. A layoff that didn't bother them too much as they waxed the Cubs in five games for the franchise's first World Series title.

In 1911, the Athletics finished their season on October 6 and the World Series didn't start until October 14, a layoff of seven days. The Athletics won that series too. That six game series, because of rainouts, did not conclude until October 26.

Republican presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani, who some of you might remember as the former mayor of New York (you mean you didn't know that?), has declared that he is rooting for the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. So says this New York Post report.

"I'm rooting for the Red Sox," the Republican presidential contender said in response to a question, sparking applause at the Boston restaurant where he was picking up a local endorsement.

"I'm an American League fan, and I go with the American League team, maybe with the exception of the Mets," he said. "Maybe that would be the one time I wouldn't because I'm loyal to New York."

Senator Hillary Clinton HAS NOT said that while growing up in Chicago she often dreamed of a World Series involving the Colorado Rockies.

Yet.

According to this story in Variety, ratings for the ALCS, especially Game 7, were strong for Fox and the network is hoping for good numbers for the World Series.

The matchup has caught the attention of advertisers, who shell out big bucks to reach young adults for DVR-proof programming like live sports. Fox reported Monday that it has sold out the first five games of the World Series at a record rate of $400,000 a spot.

"I've never seen a sales environment that's so hot for post-season baseball," said Ed Goren, president of Fox Sports, in a conference call with reporters. "Advertisers are lined up so deep to buy time that my sales guys are asking me if we could come up with a Game 8."

Nielsen estimates that an average aud of 19 million viewers watched the Boston Red Sox cap their rally in the best-of-seven series with an 11-2 victory on Sunday. That made it the most-watched program of the night -- besting "Desperate Housewives" on ABC and "Sunday Night Football" on NBC -- and will help Fox win the week's primetime ratings race among young adults and total viewers.

For the entire American League Championship Series, Fox averaged 11.6 million viewers -- 49% over last year (7.8 million for Detroit-Oakland). This makes it the most-watched ALCS since the boffo Red Sox-New York Yankees matchup in 2004, which also went seven games.

From Fox's perspective, one of the big advantages this year is that the first game will take place on Wednesday instead of Saturday, as in previous years, Goren said. Viewing levels are higher on Wednesday than Saturday, and "we'll get more of a sports-page buildup to the Series because baseball is not competing directly with weekend college football and the NFL," he said.

Tonight, Fox will show an episode of "House" and I'm sure it will be loaded with promos for the World Series. Perhaps something along the lines of John Farrell yelling at Terry Francona, "You're risking a pitcher's arm!" over and over and over and over and over.

I hope everybody watches Wednesday. Even if your father is the district attorney.

And for 3-6 more games after that in the World Series will be:

• John Montague
• Laz Diaz
• Ted Barrett
• Chuck Meriwether
• Mike Everitt
• Mike Reilly

Baseball used just two umpires per game in the World Series from 1903 through the first three games of the 1909 World Series. Then after a disputed foul ball call in Game 2 of the 1909 World Series, two more umpires were added for Game 4 (they were already on hand as standbys), but they were placed on the foul lines. The six-man crew for the World Series became standard in 1947.

Although the linked story does not list all the players, the Commissioners Office in Japan has listed 68 players in NPB as eligible for free agency.

The most notable name on the list is injured Chunichi outfielder Kosuke Fukudome, who had elbow surgery this year. Fukudome has not announced if he wishes to cross the pond.

So far, only Hiroshima pitcher Hiroki Kuroda has said that he will try to find work in MLB. Kuroda was 12-8 with a 3.56 ERA last season

So far the two teams have met just nine times in interleague play:

June 10, 2002 - Red Sox 7, Rockies 3. Derek Lowe beats Denny Neagle. Brian Daubach drives in three runs. This series is at Fenway Park.

June 11, 2002 - Rockies 3, Red Sox 1. Jason Jennings gets the win throwing seven shutout innings. Larry Walker drives in two runs with a double in the eighth to break up a scoreless tie.

June 12, 2002 - Red Sox 7, Rockies 5. Frank Castillo gets the win over Mike Hampton. The Rockies make five errors and the Red Sox commit three.

June 15, 2004 - Rockies 6, Red Sox 3. This is the Red Sox first and so far only series in Denver. The Rockies get homers from Vinny Castilla and Todd Helton to give Joe Kennedy the win over Bronson Arroyo.

June 16, 2004 - Rockies 7, Red Sox 6. The Rockies score 7 runs off of Curt Schilling helped out by errors from Nomar Garciaparra and Johnny Damon. The Red Sox get the tying run to third with two outs in the ninth, but Shawn Chacon retires pinch hitter David McCarty for the save. Jason Jennings gets the win.

June 17, 2004 - Red Sox 11, Rockies 0. Derek Lowe, Scott Williamson, and Lenny DiNardo combine on a 6-hit shutout and the Red Sox beat up on the back end of the Colorado bullpen: Kevin Jarvis and Scott Dohmann.

June 12, 2007 - Red Sox 2, Rockies 1. Back to Fenway for this series and the Red Sox score the winning run in the eighth on a JD Drew sacrifice fly. Tim Wakefield gets the win and Aaron Cook takes the loss.

June 13, 2007 - Rockies 12, Red Sox 2. Schilling is hit hard by the Rockies and gives up six runs and nine hits in five innings. Brad Hawpe hits a 3-run home run.

June 14, 2007 - Rockies 7, Red Sox 1. Jeff Francis throws five shutout innings to pick up the win. Josh Beckett gives up 10 hits and 6 runs in 5 innings for the loss. Matt Holliday and Garrett Atkins homer off of Beckett, with Atkins hitting a grand slam.

Past results do not guarantee future returns. Your mileage may vary. Offer void in Manitoba, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the state of Colorado.

In today's San Francisco Chronicle, writers Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada report that Cleveland pitcher Paul Byrd is the target of Federal law enforcement officials after finding evidence that Byrd purchased $24,850 worth of HGH from a Florida clinic.

Ken Rosenthal on Foxsports.com has a response from Byrd where the pitcher insists that he used the HGH under a doctor's care and no longer uses the hormone.

"I have not taken any hormone apart from a doctor's care and supervision," Byrd said. "The Indians, my coaches and MLB have known that I have had a pituitary gland issue for some time and have assisted me in getting blood tests in different states. I am currently working with an endocrinologist and will have another MRI on my head after the season to make sure that the tumor hasn't grown."

1912 World Series - The New York Giants won Game 7 (there had been a tie in Game 2) over the Red Sox, 11-4. The Red Sox won Game 8, 3-2 in 10 innings.

1926 World Series - The St. Louis Cardinals force a Game 7 against the Yankees with a 10-2 win at Yankee Stadium. The Cardinals win Game 7, 3-2.

1931 World Series - The Philadelphia Athletics win Game 6 in St. Louis 8-1, but they lose in Game 7, 4-2.

1960 World Series - The Yankees win Game 6 in Pittsburgh, 12-0, but lose Game 7 10-9.

1968 World Series - Detroit wins Game 6 at home against the Cardinals 13-1. They also win Game 7, this one by a score of 4-1.

1972 NLCS - Cincinnati beats Pittsburgh at home 7-1 in Game 4. They beat the Pirates in Game 5, 4-3.

1972 World Series - Cincinnati wins Game 6 against Oakland 8-1 at home. Oakland wins Game 7, 3-2.

1982 World Series - St. Louis wins Game 6 at home against the Brewers, 13-1. The Cardinals will win Game 7, 6-3.

1987 World Series - Minnesota beats St. Louis at home 11-5 in Game 6. The Twins win Game 7, 4-2.

1992 NLCS - Pittsburgh wins Game 6 in Atlanta by a 13-2 score. The Braves win Game 7 by a 3-2 margin.

1999 ALDS - Boston beats Cleveland 23-7 in Game 4. Boston wins Game 5 by a 12-8 score.

2001 ALDS - New York beats Oakland in Game 4, 9-2. The series goes back to New York for Game 5 and the Yankees win 5-3.

2001 World Series - Arizona beats the Yankees 15-2 in Game 6. The Diamondbacks win Game 7 3-2.

2007 ALCS - Boston beats Cleveland 12-2 in Game 6. And ???

Remember that past results do not guarantee future performance.

The Chunichi Dragons swept the Yomiuri Giants, 3 games to 0, in the second stage of the Central League playoffs with a 4-2 win at the Tokyo Dome. The Dragons will take on the defending champion Nippon Ham Fighters starting next Saturday.

Tyrone Woods hit a 3-run homer and Kenichi Nakata struck out 11 to lead the Dragons. Hitoki Iwase picked up his fourth save in the Dragons five postseason wins so far.

Nippon Ham won the Japan Series last year over Chunichi in five games.

Kansas City Star columnist Joe Posnanski seems pleased with the Royals new manager, Trey Hillman.

This guy doesn’t swear, talks a lot about his faith and is universally admired throughout the game for his Texas toughness and unwillingness to settle for second place.

This guy was one of the first names to come up in New York City when Yankees manager Joe Torre said goodbye.

Yes, everyone you talk to around the game — everyone — raves about this guy. The Royals organization, top to bottom, scouts to player development people to marketing folks, were flying high Friday. “Great hire!” one said. “I’m actually giddy,” said another. I can assure you that the hiring of Buddy Bell did not inspire anyone to say “giddy.”

Why do they love Hillman? Easy. They love his baseball intelligence; it’s apparent any time he talks about the game. They love his dedication to baseball. They love the way he relates to people of different backgrounds and brings players together.

Perhaps more than anything, they love his ability to adjust to any situation. Five years ago, he went to Japan, to a second-division organization — the Nippon Ham Fighters. Hillman did not know the language. He did not understand the culture. He was a certain kind of manager then; a big-inning, get-on-base, Moneyball kind of manager (the king of Moneyball himself, Billy Beane, has gushed over Hillman). Only that style didn’t work for him there. Japanese baseball is different. The team mostly lost for three seasons.

So what did Hillman do? He changed. He asked his players for input (they asked him to please make practices longer and harder; yeah, it’s different over there). He helped make the Fighters into an aggressive, attacking, bunting, scrapping team. And last year, the Fighters won the Japan Series. No team in the world, perhaps, played better fundamental baseball than Hillman’s Fighters. This year, the Fighters are in the Japan Series again, even though they are by most statistical accounts the country’s worst offensive team.

The Fighters had the best record in Japan (79-60-5, .568) despite scoring the fewest runs, 526. However, they also gave up the fewest runs, 489, although not the lowest team ERA. (Softbank had a team ERA of 3.18 and gave up 508 runs, Nippon Ham was at 3.22) The Fighters hit just 73 home runs.

By my calculations, the Fighters outperformed the expected wins by 2 wins, although that would assume the team had played no ties and finished 77-67. The Fighters were helped out by a great record in interleague play: 18-5-1.

Nevertheless, the Fighters will likely be heavy favorites in the Japan Series against either the Yomiuri Giants or Chunichi Dragons, two slugging teams.

Did you know Reuters had a blog? Did you know it had this article about what people look at it when they see a picture of George Brett?

And I now, I can't look away!

The Chunichi Dragons took a 2-0 lead in their second stage playoff series in the Central League with a 7-4 win over the Yomiuri Giants at the Tokyo Dome. Game 3 will be Saturday.

Boxscore by request!

The Dragons can win one of the next three to move on to the Japan Series to take on the Nippon Ham Fighters. The Fighters manager, Trey Hillman, is reported to be in negotiations with the Kansas City Royals to take over the job there.

The Dragons are aiming for their eighth Central League title and their second straight.

The Fighters are attempting to win back-to-back Japan Series titles, something that has not been done since the Seibu Lions won three straight from 1990-92. The Dragons have never won the Central League in consecutive years and have not won the Japan Series since 1954.

Real English language boxscore.

The expected pitching duel in Sapporo between pitchers with sub-2.00 ERAs didn't transpire and the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters won the Pacific League again with a 6-2 win over the Chiba Lotte Marines at the Sapporo Dome. The Fighters won the series 3 games to 2.

Yoshihisa Naruse of the Marines was 16-1 in the regular season, but he was knocked out after 3 2/3 IP. Yu Darvish of the Fighters went 6 2/3 innings, but had just two strikeouts.

The Fighters will take on the winner of the second stage of the Central League playoffs which started Thursday as well. The Chunichi Dragons defeated the Yomiuri Giants 5-2 at the Tokyo Dome to take a 1-0 lead in the best of five series. All the games will be played in Tokyo.

Phil Birnbaum has a link to an article that Bill James has submitted discussing the peformance of the Arizona Diamondbacks. You should give it a read if you are interested in seeing if anyone can make sense of the 2007 regular season in the National League. James is trying to examine whether or not a team like Arizona is more likely to improve or regress in the following season.

It's definitely worth a look.

While you wait for George Mitchell to name names in his investigation, ponder the video above. If you find Itchy and Scratchy a bit too violent, I would suggest going elsewhere.

The Chiba Lotte Marines tied up Japan's Pacific League playoffs with a 5-1 win over the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.

Game 5 will be Thursday and should be a matchup of Chiba's Yoshihisa Naruse (16-1, 1.817) versus Nippon Ham's Yu Darvish (15-5, 1.820).

Darvish struck out 210 in 207 2/3 IP and help opposing batters to a .174 average. Naruse had 138 Ks in 173 1/3 IP and held batters to a .211 average.

I was under the impression that the first three games would be in Sapporo and the final two in Chiba, but apparently all five games will be in Sapporo.

If you weren't watching Game 3 of the ALCS, Ken Rosenthal reported that Angels GM Bill Stoneman will be moving upstairs become a consultant for the team and will likely be replaced by an internal candidate, possibly Ken Forsch.

6-4-2 will have more.

Update: Tony Reagins, as mentioned below and forwarded on by commenter Chyll Will, got the job as GM.

How teams fared in their first trip to the World Series:

• Red Sox: won
• Pirates: lost
• Giants: won
• Athletics: lost
• White Sox: won
• Cubs: lost
• Tigers: lost
• Braves: won
• Phillies: lost
• Dodgers: lost
• Reds: won
• Indians: won
• Yankees: lost
• Twins (as Washington Senators): won
• Cardinals: won
• Orioles (as St. Louis Browns): lost
• Mets: won
• Royals: lost
• Brewers: lost
• Padres: lost
• Blue Jays: won
• Marlins: won
• Diamondbacks: won
• Angels: won
• Astros: lost

14 13 winners, 12 losers

There's no tangible prize for this except the respect of your peers.

Your mission: Guess the total number of pitches thrown by all four teams in tonight's LCS games and the total time elapsed for both games. If you want to put your guess into total minutes, that would help, but if not, don't worry.

The pitch and time totals will be taken from the MLB.com boxscores.

To keep in the spirit of things, please no strategic "Price is Right" style guessing. If you engage in that, you will not win the respect of your peers. And what is more important than that?

The Nippon Ham Fighters are one win away from moving on to the Japan Series for the second straight year. The Fighters shut out the Chiba Lotte Marines 7-0 at the Sapporo Dome to take a 2-1 lead in the best of five series.

Game 4 will be in Chiba on Tuesday and Game 5, if necessary, will also be in Chiba and is scheduled for Thursday.

The winner of the Pacific League series would not play again until October 27, when the Japan Series is scheduled to start. Game 7 of the Japan Series would be on November 4.

Fighters manager Trey Hillman has announced that he will return to the U.S. after this season and it's possible he could be showing up in an MLB dugout near you next season. Whether or not Hillman wants to come back to the U.S. for the honor of managing the Royals or Pirates is not known.

Cleveland's 7-run extra inning in Boston was the biggest ever in postseason play, but it wasn't close to the regular season record of 12, which was described in this blog earlier in the year.

During the 2007 regular season, it was Pittsburgh who had the single biggest extra inning, putting up an 8 spot in the 10th inning at Cincinnati and then holding on for a 10-4 win.

The Chunichi Dragons moved on to second stage of the Central League playoffs to face the Yomiuri Giants after defeating the Hanshin Tigers 5-1 at the Nagoya Dome. The second stage of the playoffs for the Central League will start Thursday at the Tokyo Dome.

In the Pacific League, the Chiba Lotte Marines tied up its second stage series one game apiece with an 8-1 win at the Sapporo Dome. Game 3 will be at the Sapporo Dome Monday. Games 4 and 5 (if necessary) will be played at Chiba on Tuesday and Thursday.

The defending champion Nippon Ham Fighters won Game 1 of the Pacific League's second statge of its "Climax Series" with a 5-2 win over the Chiba Lotte Marines at the Sapporo Dome. This series will be best of five.

The Central League started its first stage of its first ever "Climax Series" (OK, please stop laughing. You're adults. For the most part) and the Chunichi Dragons shut out the Hanshin Tigers 7-0 at the Nagoya Dome. This series is best of three. The Dragons can move on to face the Yomiuri Giants with a win OR tie against the Tigers Sunday.

Jack Curry of the New York Times profiles Cleveland outfielder Kenny Lofton and asks him about the frequently-aired DHL commercial which shows Lofton moving all around the country.

Lofton says:

“I looked at it as they’re just showing this guy has been all over the place,” Lofton said. “The worst part about it, I mean, not the worst part about it. But the bad thing, or not the bad thing, but it’s true. That’s what makes it not a bad thing. I mean, shoot, I’ve been all over the dang place.”

The Colorado Rockies won Game 1 of the NLCS despite not getting any extra base hits. The Rockies had just 8 singles in their 5-1 win at Arizona.

The Rockies did not win a single game in the regular season in which all their hits were singles. Not many teams did. It happened just 42 times. The Rangers, Blue Jays, Dodgers, and Astros all won four times without getting an extra base hit.

Colorado has won just 13 games in franchise history without getting an extra base hit and the last time was September 29, 2006 at Chicago.

The last postseason game where a team won without an extra base hit was the last postseason game of last year, Game 5 of the 2006 World Series.

The Cubs lost Game 1 of the 2003 NLCS to the Marlins despite picking up nine extra base hits.

As the seemingly interminable wait (three days!) with no baseball, you can enjoy (or not), these two videos about the two teams in the LCS, Cleveland and Arizona, that aren't represented by a Toaster blog. Bad Altitude will be your home for the NLCS and Cardboard Gods will be the place to be for the ALCS.

John Schuerholz, general manager of the Atlanta Braves since 1991, is giving up his general manager job to assistant GM Frank Wren, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Manager Bobby Cox is expected to return for another season.

The Braves will be holding a press conference later today.

Item picked up from Dodger Thoughts commenter Don Tordilla.

Here it is, I'm home from work. It's 6:30 pm on the West Coast. I want to find a baseball game to watch. There isn't one. I know there will be one tomorrow. But I want one now!

Well, there's always Navy versus Pittsburgh from Heinz Field. I don't think this will satisfy my baseball withdrawal symptoms.

There are a maximum of 21 games left. And I doubt that there will be that many. The most games there have been in the LCS and WS combined have been 20 and that has happened three times (1985, 1986, and 2003).

MLB named its umpiring crews for the two LCS.

The crew chief for the NLCS will be (insert dramatic pause):

Tim McLelland.

The other five umpires will Mark Wegner, Larry Vanover, Tom Hallion, Angel Hernandez (aka the Umpiest Ump Who Ever Umped), and Jim Joyce.

The ALCS crew chief will be Randy Marsh. He will be joined by Kerwin Danley, Brian Gorman, Paul Emmel, Gary Cederstrom, and Dana DeMuth.

MLB press release.

The Chiba Lotte Marines won their first round playoff series against the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks with a 4-0 win at home (I had earlier said the game would be in Fukuoka) which was my error.

Here is the boxscore. There was a 3-run triple by Saburo Ohmura in the sixth for the decisive hit.

Trust me on this. I'm mostly right. English language story.

The Marines play Nippon Ham starting Saturday in a best of five to decide the Pacific League champion.

And shouldn't it?

Some Canadian TV viewers missed Game 4 of Yankees-Indians series because the cable outlet, Rogers Sportsnet West showed an Edmonton-Detroit game. Games 2, 4, and 6 also face conflicts in certain parts of the country because of hockey obligations on Sportsnet, according to a Globe and Mail story. Most of these conflicts will be in Western Canada.

Game 3 of the ALCS won't be seen in Ontario because it conflicts with a Maple Leafs-Sabres game.

Digital cable subscribers won't be affected.

Boston vs Cleveland

All-time series:

• Cleveland, 1008 wins
• Boston, 938 wins
• 8 ties (the last one in 1956)

Included in this is the one-game playoff the Red Sox and Indians played in 1948 to decide the AL pennant.

Not included are the teams three meetings in the Division Series.

Cleveland swept the Red Sox in 3 games in 1995.

Cleveland beat the Red Sox in 4 games in 1998.

Boston beat Cleveland in 5 games in 1999.

Colorado vs Arizona

All-time series:

• Arizona, 93 wins
• Colorado, 76 wins

All four teams in the LCS have played their entire franchise history in the same city. The only other year when all four teams in the LCS were teams in their original cities was 1984 when the Tigers, Royals, Cubs, and Padres faced off. Unless you think the Angels have never switched cities.

San Francisco Giants hitting coach Joe Lefebvre, along with first base coach Willie Upshaw, were let go by the team today.

Lefebvre's dismissal means that Alan Cockrell of Colorado was the only NL West hitting coach to not get fired this year. The Dodgers fired Eddie Murray and replaced him with Eddie Murray Bill Mueller. Arizona fired Kevin Seitzer and replaced him with Rick Schu. San Diego fired Merv Rettenmund and replaced him with Wally Joyner.

Cockrell's prize will either be the Hellfish Bonanza or a bottle of whiskey.

The Fukuoka Softbank Hawks tied up their first round playoff series in the Pacific League with an 8-3 win over the Chiba Lotte Marines in Chiba.

The Hawks got 3 RBI apiece from Nobuhiko Matsunaka (who also had a homer) and Naoyuki Omura as well as a solo homer from Brian Buchanan.

Game 3 will be Wednesday in Fukuoka. Yoshihisa Naruse will pitch for Chiba and Jason Standridge will pitch for the Hawks. The 3-game series is tied 1-1. The winner plays the first place Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in the second round starting Saturday in Sapporo. That will be a best of five series.

The Greatest Game Ever Played?

With all the game times except for a potential Game 7 set, the NLCS will have four games starting at 8:30 pm ET (Games 1, 3, 5, and 6) and two starting at 10 pm ET (Game 2 and 4).

If you live on the East Coast and you doze off, just drop me a line, I'll promise to send you an email update with the final score.

FREE!

The two late starts in the NLCS are for the only two days when both the ALCS and NLCS are being played. And instead of running them at the same time on two Fox outlets, the AL will start first on Fox and then three hours later the NL starts on TBS.

Because you know, Red Sox games always finish in less than three hours.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times is not happy at all with the work of Chip Caray on the TBS telecasts of the Division Series.

He [Caray] said the “Yankees led the world” in home runs this season with 201. He liked saying it so much he said it again. Truth: The Brewers led the majors with 231, followed by the Phillies with 213 and the Reds at 204. The Yankees and Marlins were tied at 201.

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He also has an annoying air of certitude. With the bases loaded Sunday, and the Yankees leading, 5-3, thanks to Johnny Damon’s three-run homer, Caray said, “This is a spot where they have to score another run to win the game.” Does he also read palms?

That attitude led him on Sunday, after Rodriguez’s first hit of the series, to say, “And here come the Yankees!” A-Rod went back to the bench on Jorge Posada’s double play.

After Damon’s run-scoring single in the third, he said, “And here they come!”

No, they didn’t: Jeter promptly grounded into a double play.

I know that Yankee fans may thought that Caray was pro-Cleveland or anti-New York, but I think that is a common feeling that comes up in these situations. Objectively, I would have to say that one thing is certain: Caray is really bad. It's as if the family's ability to broadcast baseball games has declined with each generation.

Game 1 of the first round of the Pacific League Climax Series (cut out that laughing!) got underway Monday in Japan. The third place Softbank Hawks lost to the second place Chiba Lotte Marines 8-4 at Chiba. It is a best of three series and the next game will be at Chiba. A third game, if necessary, will be in Fukuoka. The winner plays the first place Nippon Ham Fighters in a best of five series.

The Central League will not start its Climax Series (I told you to stop laughing!) until October 13, the same day the Pacific League will start its second round. The Central League is still finishing up its regular season, even though all of its playoff spots are set. The Yomiuri Giants won the regular season with the Chunichi Dragons second and the Hanshin Tigers third.

The final game of the 1908 season essentially served as a one-game playoff for the NL pennant. The Chicago Cubs played at the Polo Grounds against the New York Giants. The game was a replay of a September 23, 1908 1-1 tie between the two teams.

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I didn't see Game 2 of the Yankees-Indians series, but from what I've read I believe this is a photo of the creature in question.

The creature has many names and you can read about them where I found the picture at Fly Angler's Online.

You can also read about them at Trout Nut.

And now, that I have the wrong bug according to Cliff, it looks like this may be the culprit.

This photo is from the Sandusky Register.

They're back, and they're everywhere.

Muffleheads, also known as chironomids or non-biting midges, are slightly smaller than mosquitoes, and as their name implies, they don't bite.

Their large swarms, however, are enough to bug area residents.

"It's been three years since I've seen an emergence this big," said Jeff Tyson, biologist supervisor of the Lake Erie Fisheries. Tyson has been working at the Sandusky office for 13 years.

While the swarms of muffleheads can certainly get annoying, Tyson said that they're ultimately a good thing.

"They are indicators of good water quality," Tyson said. "The chironomids are a sign of a healthy Lake Erie."

For a guy with a bit of a bug phobia, this may be the end of my searching.

Also from Paul Hoynes in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer on August 26, 1991:

Slider, the Indians' fuzzy mascot, was the only sane creature at the Stadium last night.

He grabbed a giant blue fly swatter and battled the swarms of flying insects that invaded the old ballpark on almost equal terms. Everybody else - players, umpires, fans and ushers - was at a distinct disadvantage.

Everybody that is except Rod Nichols, which makes perfect sense when you think about it. Remember, this is a guy who throws a pitch called the forkle, owned a 1-10 record before last night and had been taken out of the rotation twice this season.

Nichols, making his first start since Aug. 2, threw a three-hitter against the Chicago White Sox as the Indians completed a three-game sweep with a 3-0 victory in front of 10,106 bug-infested fans.

The shutout and three-hitter were big-league firsts by Nichols. What chance did a 10 or 15 million bugs have against somebody like this?

"The last four years I've pitched at least three bug games, so I'm used to it," said Nichols. "It's like a home-field advantage. But this was by far the worst bug game I've seen."

Catcher Joel Skinner, who aided Nichols by throwing out Tim Raines and Ozzie Guillen on attempted steals in the first three innings, disagreed.

"The bugs had better hang time last year," said Skinner. "These guys got tired a lot faster."

The bugs seemed to hit around the third inning. Spiral shaped clouds of the insects sank to the field like puffs of smoke.

"This happens two or three times a year," said third-baseman Jerry Browne. "When it gets hot and humid, you've got to expect it."

After having elbow surgery last June, Hideo Nomo, out of the majors since the middle of 2005, will it give it another go in the Venezuelan Winter League. Nomo says he will pitch for the Caracas Lions.

Tadahito Iguchi of the Phillies says he wants to stay in the U.S. (he's a free agent once the World Series is over) and is applying for a green card.

The Angels-Red Sox playoff game lasted 4 hours and 5 minutes, but missed the record for the longest postseason game of nine innings, which is still 4 hours and 13 minutes by the Phillies and Blue Jays in Game 4 of the 1993 World Series and also by the Yankees and Athletics in Game 4 of the 2001 ALDS.

Game 1 of the Angels-Red Sox lasted just 2 hours and 27 minutes which tied the AL Division Series record for shortest game by time. The Indians and Red Sox played a game of similar length in 1998.

The shortest postseason game ever was Game 6 of the 1908 World Series which lasted just 1:25. Game time temperatures in Detroit that day were around 30.

Don Nottebart, who threw the first no-hitter in Houston Astros (then the Colts) history, passed away on Thursday in Cypress, Texas at age 71. The Astros have 10 no-hitters in their history.

Link via BTF.

The Pittsburgh Pirates dismissed Jim Tracy after two years on the job.

Pirates GM Neal Huntington talked about it in ways that would make even Tracy seem comfortable:

"This is a very difficult day as a professional," Huntington said. "This is a very difficult day for me as a person. These decisions are never easy. Since my appointment as general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates we've undergone an exhaustive review of what is here, who we are, what we do, who is in place, what's good and unfortunately in some situations what's not so good.

"After that gathering of information -- we took a very systematic approach to analyzing that information -- after analyzing that information and accessing that information it became very clear to me that we needed some change. If we are going to successfully implement our philosophies, our vision and our system we needed to change the leadership. We needed to change the direction of our baseball operations department."

 Or in other words, the Pirates wanted a better manager.

And Jim Duquette, architect of the Orioles juggernaut, has resigned as team VP.

The Colorado Rockies have now hit at least one home run in all six of their postseason games. That is two short of the record for the longest stretch with a home run to start a franchise's postseason play. The Seattle Mariners hit home runs in eight straight games in 1995.

The Mariners hit home runs in all five games of their epic ALDS against the Yankees and then in the first three games against Cleveland in the ALCS. The Mariners were shut out in Game 4 of the ALCS, 7-0 by four Cleveland pitchers.

The Houston Astros have the longest streak in postseason play with a home run at 13. That streak started in Game 3 of the 2001 NLDS against Atlanta, then all five games of the 2004 NLDS against the Braves, and then all seven games of the 2004 NLCS against St. Louis. The Astros failed to homer in Game 1 of the 2005 NLDS against Atlanta despite scoring 10 runs.

The Yankees longest stretch in the postseason with a homer is just nine games, which they've done three separate times, the last time in 2004.

Manny Corpas picked up a save for the Rockies in Game 1. The only other save recorded by a Colorado pitcher was Mark Thompson in 1995. He never had a save in the regular season.

Although Geovany Soto had just 80 at bats in the major leagues (54 this season) before seeing action in the postseason (obviously, I'm not looking at AL pitchers from the DH era), he will not break the record of another Cubs catcher, Clyde McCullough, who played in the 1945 World Series despite not seeing any action during the regular season. Federal labor laws required all returning veterans to retain their jobs, so the 1945 World Series between the Cubs and Tigers was played with no roster limits. McCullough made the 1948 All-Star team. He batted .209 that year with 1 home run and 7 RBI.

Frank Demaree, the last Cub rookie to homer in the postseason before Soto did tonight, had just 56 at bats in the 1932 regular season and had played in the field for just 17 games.

• 10 - Oakland against Boston - Games 1-4 of 1988 ALCS, Games 1-4 of 1990 ALCS, Games 1-2 of 2003 ALDS
• 9 - New York against Texas - Games 2-4 of 1996 ALDS, Games 1-3 of 1998 ALDS, Games 1-3 of 1999 ALDS
• 8 - St. Louis against San Diego, Games 1-3 of 1996 NLDS, Games 1-3 of 2005 NLDS, Games 1-2 of 2006 NLDS
• 8 - New York Yankees against Cubs, Games 1-4 of 1932 WS, Games 1-4 of 1938 WS
• 7 - Boston against the Angels, Games 5-7 of 1986 ALCS, Games 1-3 of the 2004 ALDS, and Game 1 of the 2007 ALDS
• 7 - New York Yankees against the Braves, Games 3-6 of 1996 World Series and Games 1-4 of the 1999 World Series.

From the New York Times of October 26, 1911 (it's in the public domain now)!

SAYS WINNING RUN WASN'T REALLY MADE

Umpire Klem Declares That Doyle Failed To Touch the Plate When He Slid Home

Athletics Made No Protest in the Excitement, and so the Tally Was Counted

 The run credited to Capt. "Larry" Doyle in the tenth inning at yesterday's game at the Polo Grounds, which gave the Giants their second victory over the Philadelphia Athletics in the world's series, was not properly scored, according to a statement made after the game by Umpire William J. Klem of the National League, who was officiating behind the plate as Umpire in Chief.

Doyle did not touch the plate, according to Klem, and if the Athletics had made an appeal the umpire said he would have declared Doyle out and the inning would have ended in a tie score. As it was getting dark the game could not have gone much farther.

Umpire Klem's declaration that Doyle did not touch the plate was corroborated by Francis E. Richter of Philadelphia and J.G. Taylor Spink of St. Louis, official scorers appointed by the Baseball National Commission. Manager McGraw of the New Yorks admitted after the game, according to Mr. Klem, that Doyle missed the plate.

Despite the fact that the umpire in chief and the two official scorers declare that Doyle did not touch the plate to make the run legal, no protest can be lodged with the commission as to the result of the game, it is said, because the Philadelphia Club made no appeal on the play.

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• The NL has four different playoff teams from last year. That's the first time that has happened in either league since the three-division format was adopted. The Braves and Yankees have been stumbling blocks for that.
• The Cubs have actually won a postseason series (2003 NLDS) more recently than their opponent, Arizona (2001 WS). The Cubs have either played teams that had won series more recently or teams that had either never won or appeared in the postseason before (1984 NLCS against the Padres, 1910 WS against Athletics, 1907-08 WS against Tigers, 1906 WS against White Sox.)
• There are five possible World Series matchups that can be repeated: 2001, Arizona vs New York; 1950, Philadelphia vs New York; 1932 and 1938, Chicago vs New York; 1918, Chicago vs Boston; 1915, Philadelphia vs Boston.
• The two teams with the most wins in the NL were Arizona and Colorado with 90. This is the first time in the three-division era that the top two teams in the NL have come from the West. In the last year of two-division play, the top two teams in the NL West had the most wins: Atlanta with 104 and San Francisco with 103. The only division in baseball that has now not produced the top two winners in its league in a season is the AL Central.
• The Rockies were the first NL team to go 14-1 to finish the season since the 1965 Dodgers. But you already knew that.
• Jose Guillen of the Mariners reached on catcher's interference in the last game of the season to bring the season total in the majors to 25. The Mariners ended the longest drought in the majors without having a player reach on catcher's interference. Prior to Guillen, no Mariner had a CI since Russ Davis on June 1, 1997. The Red Sox now have the longest streak without a CI: Darren Lewis picked one up on September 13, 1998. The complete list of catcher's intereference for 2007.
• Ramon Ortiz won his first game of the year for the Rockies in the tiebreaker game against the Padres. The previous low for wins by a pitcher in a tiebreaker was five by Clem Labine when he won Game 2 of the 1951 playoff series for the Dodgers against the Giants and also by Don Larsen of the Giants in Game 3 of the 1962 playoff series against the Dodgers.
• The tiebreaker Monday night was the third time such a game had ended on a walkoff play. There was, of course, Bobby Thomson in 1951, and the 1959 playoff between the Dodgers and Braves ended on an infield single by Carl Furillo and a throwing error by Felix Mantilla that allowed Gil Hodges to score the winning run in the 12th inning.
• In 1951, the Dodgers blew a 4-1 lead in the ninth. In 1962, the Dodgers blew a 4-2 lead in the ninth (and lost 6-4 at home). The Padres blew a 2-run lead in the 13th.
• The Rockies and Padres are the first two teams to play 163 regular season games since 2005 when Houston and Cincinnati did so. They played a 2-2 tie on June 30, 2005.
• The Rockies had three triples in their final game. In their only other game this year in which they hit three triples, they lost, and scored just one run. That was in a 4-1 loss to Houston on June 5.
• The Angels have lost six straight postseason games to the Red Sox.

With Jeff Cirillo (1617 games) making it to the postseason this year, the new leader among active players for most games appeared in without playing in the postseason is Damion Easley (1593 games). Todd Helton got to 1578 games, but will make it to the postseason.

If Easley does not return next year, the new leader will be Jose Vidro at 1333 games. After Vidro would be Tony Batista at 1309 games.

The San Diego Padres were the 22nd team to be eliminated from postseason contention after losing the tiebreaker game to the Colorado Rockies, 9-8 in 13 innings.

Congratulations to ToyCannon who won the Griddle Contest to pick the Final Five teams to be eliminated. He won the contest with 10 points. Several other entries had 9 points.

The Colorado Rockies are making their first appearance in the postseason since 1995 after beating the San Diego Padres, 9-8 in 13 innings.

The Rockies will take on the Phillies in the NLDS.

It was on August 5, 1995 that I ventured down to Anaheim Stadium to go watch the then California Angels host the Texas Rangers. The Angels had an 11-game lead over second place Texas at the time and the Mariners were 12 games back. The Angels at the time were the only team in the division with a winning record.

For the life of me, I can't remember attending this game. But I have it down in my scorebook, so I must have been there. (No, I don't keep score at home.) My memories come from the scorebook as the details of this game have been lost in the midsts of time. I don't know if I went to the game with a friend or just took a drive to Anaheim. Remembering something from 12 years ago isn't usually this hard for me.

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With the New York Mets unexpectedly off for October, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has named Mr. Met as a special envoy to negotiate with other countries who are led by people with similarly-shaped novelty heads.